WESTBRIDGE, HAUNTED CHILD, et al. Featured in Royal Court's Autumn Season

Royal Court Theatre has just announced their Autumn 2011 line-up. Dominic Cooke, Artistic Director of the Royal Court said: "I'm delighted to announce a busy season of seven ambitious new plays exploring notions of inheritance, intergenerational conflict and the relationship between public and private worlds.

"We welcome back several accomplished Royal Court writers including Joe Penhall, David Eldridge and debbie tucker green. We're thrilled to introduce the latest graduate of the Royal Court writing programmes, Rachel De-lahay

"The work that goes on behind the scenes at the Royal Court is its lifeblood, a unique breeding ground for emerging writers, giving them the time, space and support to develop their work and take risks. This season delivers the eclectic range of ground-breaking plays and new writers that has become the Royal Court's trademark."

"After the buzz of Theatre Local at Elephant and Castle last year, we are currently developing new plans to continue the project, staging two plays from our season - debbie tucker green's ambitious and formally exciting truth and reconciliation and Rachel De-lahay's complex The Westbridge."

In the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Alexi Kaye Campbell's epic third play The Faith Machine stages the battle between faith and capitalism. April de Angelis' frank and funny drama Jumpy looks at the generation gap. It asks what happened to that band of radicals who marched on Greenham common when they became parents, especially when the ideals for which they fought have lost their potency. Joe Penhall's mysterious and unsettling play Haunted Child looks at what we choose to believe in and the effects of this on our children. In 2012 David Eldridge returns to the Royal Court with his family drama In Basildon exploring inheritance and the myth of place.

In the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, debbie tucker green will direct her new play truth and reconciliation which spans the countries Rwanda, Northern Ireland, Zimbabwe, Bosnia, and South Africa. Former Artistic Director of the Royal Court Max Stafford-Clark returns with his company Out of Joint to direct Stella Feehily's play Bang Bang Bang about the public and private lives of humanitarian workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rachel De-lahay's debut play The Westbridge, set in South London, premieres. Exploring the complexities of life, relationships and friendships across a minefield of racial and cultural differences and expectations, the play co-won the Alfred Fagon award last year while still unpublished.

The autumn season will be the first the Royal Court has announced with the support of Coutts & Co as Principal Sponsor, which begins in June.

Theatre Local, sponsored by Bloomberg, is to be resurrected this season in a new London location still to be announced. debbie tucker green's truth and reconciliation and Rachel De-lahay's The Westbridge will be staged there as part of their run at the Royal Court.

This year the Royal Court has furthered its reach with successful transfers of its shows, producing Bruce Norris' Clybourne Park in the West End and Jez Butterworth's Jerusalem, currently running on Broadway. Clybourne Park, which won an Evening Standard, Critics' Circle and Olivier Award for Best New Play as well as a Pulitzer Prize for Drama was the first time the Royal Court had been lead producer on a commercial transfer in the West End.

On Broadway, Jerusalem has been nominated for six Tony Awards and received the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play, with Mark Rylance winning a further three awards for his performance.

Tickets for the new season are on sale on from today (Friday 10 June) at 9am to Friends and Supporters and on general sale from Friday 17 June at 9am. Tickets available online at www.royalcourttheatre.com or from the Box Office on 020 7565 5000.
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs

The Faith Machine
By Alexi Kaye Campbell
Directed by Jamie Lloyd
25 August - 1 October 2011
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 31 August 2011, 7pm

Jumpy
By April de Angelis
Directed by Nina Raine
13 October - 19 November 2011
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 19 October 2011, 7pm

Haunted Child
By Joe Penhall
Directed by Jeremy Herrin
2 December - 14 January 2012
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Press Night, Thursday 8 December 2011, 7pm

In Basildon (TO GO ON SALE IN AUTUMN 2011)
By David Eldridge
Directed by Dominic Cooke
Thursday 16 February - 24 March 2012
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 22 February 2011, 7pm

Jerwood Theatre Upstairs

truth and reconciliation
Written and directed by debbie tucker green
Thursday 1 September - Saturday 24 September
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Press Night, Monday 5 September 7pm

Bang Bang Bang
By Stella Feehily
Directed by Max Stafford-Clark
11 October - 5 November 2011
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Press Night, Friday 14 October 2011, 7pm

The Westbridge
by Rachel De-lahay
directed by Clint Dyer
Friday 25 November - Friday 23 December
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Press Night: To be confirmed

The Faith Machine
By Alexi Kaye Campbell
25 August - 1 October 2011
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 31 August 2011, 7pm

"Trouble is we don't believe in the same God anymore"

On a beautiful September morning in New York Sophie forces Tom into a decision. The choice he makes, and the events of that day, will change their lives forever.

Travelling from America to Britain to a remote Greek island this epic new play explores the relationship between faith and capitalism and asks fundamental questions about the true meaning of love.

The cast includes Jude Akuwudike, Hayley Atwell, Bronagh Gallagher, Ian McDiarmid, Kyle Soller and Alan Westaway.

Hayley Atwell plays Sophie. Her stage credits include A View from the Bridge for which she was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress, Major Barbara and Man of Mode at The National Theatre and Women Beware Women at the RSC. On television she played Freya in the Channel 4 adaptation of Any Human Heart, and on film, she appeared in The Duchess, Brideshead Revisited, Cassandra's Dream and is shortly to appear in the feature film Captain America: The First Avenger.

Ian McDiarmid plays her father Edward, a bishop with liberal views. His theatre credits include The Prince of Homburg at the Donmar Warehouse, Be Near Me at The National Theatre of Scotland and the Donmar Warehouse, which he also adapted for the stage and Six Characters in Search of An Author for Headlong at Chichester and in the West End. He was joint Artistic Director of The Almeida Theatre from 1990-2002 with Jonathan Kent.

Kyle Soller plays Tom. His theatre credits include The Government Inspector and The Glass Menagerie at the Young Vic and The Talented Mr Ripley at Northampton Theatre Royal.

Alexi Kaye Campbell's debut play The Pride, produced in 2008 in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court, won an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre, the John Whiting Award for Best Play and a Critics' Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright. His second play Apologia opened at the Bush Theatre in 2009 and was nominated for Best Theatre Play at the Writers Guild Awards 2009 and short-listed for the John Whiting Award. When The Pride was restaged at MCC Theatre in New York in January 2010, it was nominated for an Outer Critics' Circle award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play.

Director Jamie Lloyd returns to the Royal Court to reunite with Alexi after directing The Pride. An associate of the Donmar Warehouse, his credits there include The 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee, Piaf and Polar Bears. Elsewhere, his credits include Salome for Headlong, Three Days of Rain and The Little Dog Laughed in the West End and The Caretaker at Sheffield Theatres.

Director Jamie Lloyd
Designer Mark Thompson
Lighting Neil Austin
Music and Sound Alex Baranowski

 

 

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